There's Nothing Standard About Standard Darwin Kastle I love the Standard environment right now. There are many different viable deck types. It makes for interesting tournaments with varied fields. I have my favorites of course. I often feel that playing something rogue can give me an advantage. What I usually do in Constructed is to try and come up with something different that no one else is playing. I often feel that playing something rogue can give me an advantage. My best finishes in Constructed have often used this approach. I finished third at Pro Tour-Paris going rogue and more recently I finished third at Grand Prix-Denver doing the same thing. This isn't always the best approach, however. Recently I have tried a different approach. When I see someone else playing a deck that I think is great, I immediately give it a try. At U.S. Nationals I lost to Alex Borteh, who was playing Merfolk-Opposition. I thought that his deck was so cool and so good that I had to give it a try. As a result, I piloted a Merfolk-Opposition deck to a 4-1-1 record at Worlds in Toronto. I like Merfolk-Opposition for five main reasons. First it has a lock. I love the ability to lock down my opponent so they don't get to play. Second it has permission; I'm a big fan of cards that say, "counter target spell". Third it has pressure and I like da beats! Fourth its monocolor. Not only does this make it more consistent, but also it allows you to take full advantage of powerful cards like Thwart. Fifth, it has lots library manipulation. Not only do I love Looting and Gushing, but also I'm probably the biggest fan of Vodalian Merchant you will ever meet. ("draw a card" are three words I like even more than "counter target spell") This is the deck I played at Worlds: Darwin Kastle Merfolk Opposition Main Deck Sideboard 20 Island 4 Glacial Wall 4 Lord of Atlantis 4 Merfolk Looter 4 Merfolk of the Pearl Trident 4 Vodalian Merchant 4 Counterspell 4 Gush 4 Opposition 4 Static Orb 4 Thwart 1 Disrupt 2 Dodecapod 2 Hibernation 2 Misdirection 2 Temporal Adept 3 Wall of Air 2 Wash Out 1 Withdraw The only way my maindeck varied from Alex Borteh's Nationals deck was that I ran Glacial Walls in place of Darting Merfolk. This was because I found it hard to beat Fires of Yavimaya decks without the walls. I was very happy with this deck at Worlds. My favorite Standard deck has changed again however. A talented deck designer named Josh Smith recently won a tournament at Your Move Games with a cool black-red-green deck. The next day I built myself a version to play in the Your Move Games Grudge Match Final. The deck I played looked like this: The Terminator Main Deck Sideboard 1 Shivan Oasis 3 Urborg Volcano 2 Sulfurous Springs 4 Karplusan Forest 4 Llanowar Wastes 2 Darigaaz's Caldera 3 Mountain 6 Swamp 2 Spiritmonger 4 Blazing Specter 4 Plague Spitter 3 Thunderscape Battlemage 4 Duress 2 Addle 4 Pernicious Deed 3 Terminate 3 Urza's Rage 2 Void 4 Dark Ritual 4 Dodecapod 2 Flametongue Kavu 2 Pyre Zombie 2 Addle 1 Terminate 4 Saproling Burst There were many things I liked about this deck. I liked the overall power level of the cards in it. I liked the strong hand destruction element. I liked the mass removal and the large amounts of control. I liked that it had answers to just about every type of card. I liked that it made use of some cards that seemed to just beat some decks. I liked the power and flexibility of the sideboard. I also liked how it shaped up against the current metagame. Almost every card in The Terminator has a high power level all by itself. Duress is one of the best hand destruction spells ever printed. It is lots of power packed into one mana. Terminate buries any creature as an instant for only two mana. Urza's Rage can win games almost single-handedly with the ability to do ten unstoppable points of damage. For only three mana, Plague Spitter hits for three a turn while mopping up annoying small creatures. Pernicious Deed is a three casting cost, on the board, reset button. Blazing Specter is a 2/2 for four with three powerful special abilities. For one more mana you can have Spiritmonger, a 6/6 with three good special abilities! Dark Ritual is powerful enough in combination with various other cards that it has been banned in Extended. Void can wreck an opponent's board and hand at the same time. Thunderscape Battlemage is often a four for one. Card advantage is one the main reasons this deck is so powerful. Instead of gaining card advantage by drawing cards, this deck does it by removing multiple cards from an opposing player's hand or board with only one of your cards. I have always been a big fan of hand destruction; from Mind Twist to Hippy/Scepter/Rack, to the early days of Necro-summer, I was loving it. Using Duress and Addle you can make the world safe for your Blazing Specters and Thunderscape Battlemages, and use all of the above to make your opponent miserable. Duress and Addle can also help set up devastating Voids. The hand destruction combines very nicely with the mass removal in the deck. If you clear the board with a Pernicious Deed after clearing out your opponent's hand, the cards in your hand will rule the day. If your opponent holds small creatures in hand while waiting for an answer to Plague Spitter, hand destruction can remove them. The threat of hand destruction will often force an opponent to over-commit resources to the board, leaving them wide open for cards like Pernicious Deed and Plague Spitter. The Terminator seems to have an answer for everything. Like most red-black decks, it is equipped with an array of creature removal. It has burn, spot removal, and mass creature kill. Also like most red-black decks, it is equipped with answers in the form of hand destruction. The green adds some things that red-black doesn't always have however. With Pernicious Deed and Thunderscape Battlemage, enchantments have short life spans. The Pernicious Deeds combine with the Voids as artifact control. Certain cards seemed to be completely insane against certain decks. Not surprisingly, some decks have no answer to Spiritmonger. Getting a Pernicious Deed or a Plague Spitter into play shuts down some other decks. Some decks fold to an early Blazing Specter. Others have no answer to a late game Urza's Rage. The sideboard is very good and could be even better. I had four Dodecapods in mine because I wanted to surprise people in the mirror match and I wanted them against black-white. If I had it to do over again I would certainly have Engineered Plague in the sideboard. The Saproling Bursts come in and destroy certain decks, like most red-black decks for example. In some matchups, Pyre Zombie is a home wrecker. As one of the defining cards of the block, Flametongue Kavu seems like a powerful sideboard card. With access to three powerful colors, there are many powerful options for the sideboard. The decks I was expecting to be at the event were Fires, Merfolk-Opposition, Saproling-Opposition, Machine Head, Nether-Go, and Counterrebel. I like this deck much better than Merfolk against Machine Head or Fires. Decks that depend on small creatures like Merfolk, Counterrebel, and Saproling-Opposition seem to fold against my Deeds and Spitters that I force through with hand destruction. The hand destruction seems to be a big problem for Nether-Go. If Blue Skies is popular in your area, The Terminator will probably be right at home there. Honestly I like both Merfolk-Opposition and The Terminator quite a bit. The Terminator was a last-minute surprise switch, in part because it beats Merfolk-Opposition. Often choosing the right deck for you will be determined by the local metagame. If you're not sure, The Terminator is a good choice in almost any environment. So remember just because the tournament is Standard doesn't mean your deck choice has to be. Goodbye for now, but "I'll be back!"